that could change today, when president obama holds a meeting with all four congressional leader at the white house. we're not saying you should bet on it. let's bring in ron brownstein for "the national journal." >> good morning. >> good morning. we're talking about this whole idea of a fiscal cliff was absolutely not supposed to happen. >> this was a machine that the two sides built to give guy them more will power to do what they didn't want to do to begin with. which is compromise. they could not reach a deal to destabilize the federal government's long-term finances so they built this to put more pressure on themselves to reach a deal now. and even this does not seem to be enough to do it, to force them to make the difficult concessions that are required for the two sides to come together this is indignant of a broader problem we face of a red coalition and blue coalition that reflect very different visions of american and show less and less cooperation. we are looking at a dividing government for the next two years and more likely next four years. if they can't make an agreement o